João Rocha papers

João Rocha was born in Ponte de Lima, Portugal January 25, 1899. At the age of 13 he immigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and came to the United States in 1920 at the age of 21. His first job was sweeping floors in a factory in Cambridge, but he soon opened a clothing business. He sold that a few years later and purchased a struggling Portuguese language magazine, Revista Portugal-America, based in Cambridge, MA, which he published for three years. He was naturalized a U.S. citizen in 1926. At some point Rocha became circulation manager for the Diario de Noticias in New Bedford, and also purchased a Portuguese weekly O Independente, which he published for eight years. In 1940 Rocha acquired an interest in the Diario de Noticias; he bought out his partner three years later and because publisher. He was associated with the paper for thirty years, until it ceased publication in October of 1973. During his lifetime, Rocha was awarded many honors for his work with the Portuguese community and his journalistic goals of bringing about a better understanding between the United States, Brazil and Portugal. In 1946 he became the first U.S. citizen to receive the Order of the Crusader of the South (Ordem Cruzeiro do Sul) from the Brazilian government. In 1965 he was invited to be present at Ellis Island for Lyndon Johnson’s signing of H.R. 2580, An Act to Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, and in 1966 he was awarded the rank of knight of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator by the Portuguese government. Rocha interviewed many prominent individuals in the United States, Brazil and Portugal for the Diario, most notably Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Rocha was married to Mary M. Tavares of Belmont. They lived in Dartmouth and had one daughter, Joan. He died in 1977.